IWR Colloquium on Computational Methods in Sciences
The IWR Colloquium serves as a platform for the interdisciplinary dialogue which characterizes the field of scientific computing. It is organized by Dr. Dirk Rehn, Coordinator IWR Colloquium.
Every semester, members of the IWR and its affiliated institutions as well as renowned international experts are invited to present their latest scientific results and discuss the upcoming challenges in the field of scientific computing.
We gladly invite you to join this interdisciplinary dialogue.
Summer Semester 2025
The IWR Colloquium takes place at the Mathematikon. In addition it will be streamed via Zoom.
Mathematikon
Im Neuenheiner Feld 205
69210 Heidelberg
Zoom meeting: https://zoom.us/j/98119222049
For further talks at the Mathematikon please visit the website of the Mathematical Colloquium organized by the Institute for Mathematics: https://www.math.uni-heidelberg.de/en/colloquium
Talks
May 15, 2025 • 16:15
A “Super-Krylov” Approach to Diagonalization on a Quantum Computer
Prof. Kirk M. Soodhalter • The University of Dublin, Ireland • 2024 Romberg Visiting Professor
Quantum computing offers the promise of "exponential" increases in the speed of certain types of computations compared to classical computing machines. However, such devices have limitations as to the type of operations that are admissible, and some operations carry with them levels of interference so great as to make the result unusable. Thus, well-established (e.g., numerical linear algebraic) algorithms must be ported over and adapted to this setting, representing interesting, highly non-trivial new numerical analysis challenges.
In this talk, we discuss our first steps in exploring the adaption of Krylov subspace approaches to the quantum computing setting. The problem we consider is the estimation of the ground state eigenvalue of a Hamiltonian matrix (i.e., the left-most eigenvalue of a Hermitian matrix). This setting presents a number of challenges, including that we can only work with specifically prepared unitary matrices. We overcome these challenges by constructing a specific "super Krylov" subspace using a unitary matrix and using a hybrid quantum-classical approach to take advantage of the strengths of both computational settings. Theoretical analysis and practical numerical results demonstrate the utility of this approach.
Collaborators: Joint work with Adam Byrne (Trinity College Dublin/IBM Research) and Will Kirby, Sergiy Zhuk (IBM Research)
Location: Mathematikon • Conference Room, Room 5/104, 5th Floor • Im Neuenheimer Feld 205 • 69120 Heidelberg
May 22, 2025 • 16:15
Science, Fiction: Uncovering Research Misconduct Without Eroding Trust
Jackson Ryan • Journalist in Residence 2025 at the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS)
From accusations of plagiarism against Harvard's former president to the case of Stanford's Marc Tessier-Lavigne and over to the horrific case of Paolo Macchiarini's plastic windpipes -- scientific misconduct has exploded into the public eye in recent years. How can scientists and journalists cover such cases without undermining trust in the scientific process and our research institutions? Over the past five years, Jackson Ryan, HITS Journalist in Residence 2025, has been investigating cases of research misconduct at Australian universities, coming face to face with the problems in managing and investigating breaches. Along the way, he's learned some hard lessons about trust, transparency and the critical role watchdog journalists play in improving scientific practice.
Location: Mathematikon • Conference Room, Room 5/104, 5th Floor • Im Neuenheimer Feld 205 • 69120 Heidelberg
June 12, 2025 • 16:15
The Discrete Fourier Transform and its Application to Problems in Time Series Analysis
Prof. Suhasini Subba Rao • Texas A&M University , USA • 2025 Romberg Visiting Scholar
Abstract: tba.
Location: Mathematikon • Conference Room, Room 5/104, 5th Floor • Im Neuenheimer Feld 205 • 69120 Heidelberg
July 3, 2025 • 16:15
Inference of Constitutive Relations From Data, With Application to Sea Ice Modeling
Georg Stadler • Courant Institute, New York University, USA • 2024 Romberg Visiting Scholar
Sea ice is a fundamental component of the climate system and is typically treated as a continuum fluid. The most widely used sea-ice model today, proposed by Hibler in 1979, was developed from heuristic analytical arguments. Although reliable in regions of high ice concentration, it performs poorly elsewhere. In this talk, we present a general framework for inferring constitutive relations from data, and apply it to sea ice. The approach uses a characterization of isotropic constitutive laws as scalar functions of the principal invariants of the strain-rate tensor. These scalar functions are represented by neural networks trained on data generated by a Lagrangian discrete element model. By coupling PyTorch with the finite-element package Firedrake, we incorporate the governing PDE into the training process, which requires solving a PDE-constrained optimization problem for the network parameters.
Location: Mathematikon • Conference Room, Room 5/104, 5th Floor • Im Neuenheimer Feld 205 • 69120 Heidelberg
July 17, 2025 • 16:15
Title: tba.
Speaker: tba.
Location: tba.